MBA – Page 2 – Disney Brand Loyalty Keynote Speaker

MBA Takes A Toll

Agree or disagree, you’ll often hear me talk about the value of, and expectations the student places on, an MBA. Overwhelming I see people get an MBA thinking it will propel their careers forward. Look around in your own world and do the math.

And of course, I have to take the road less traveled. You know, create an LLC, with the investment being not in a degree (paper) but in a profit (paper). It’s called not following the The Herd, because where the Herd is going is, well, a big pasture, or maybe the slaughter house.

Anyway, I’m climbing a mountain. A mountain that looks like the one my recent MBA degree graduate describes below.

“I received an incredible amount of support, internally from my classmates throughout the last 19 months. My family also put up with a significant amount of disengagement and time away or locked in a room because of traveling and the amount of time that I had to spend either studying by myself, or studying with my Cohort.”

Mid Way Through MBA Program

Tomorrow Is A Brand New Day

Master’s Degree in Business Administration, or MBA.

A highly coveted degree.

A resume builder.

A differentiator.

A few years of intense study, expense and sacrifice.

I know it well, and have just passed the half-way mark.

Soon, I’ll share a few highlights from the midterm report card.

What’s the best thing that ever happened to you because of your MBA degree?

Next blog

Cheesy MBAs

If you read this blog’s comments, you’ll know that we have recently come to the finish line with our MBA discussion.

An MBA by itself is worthless.

The effort to successfully receive it, priceless.

But overwhelmingly, it’s the unrealistic expectations people have about what an MBA delivers that are dangerous.

Mike Reardon and Bob Stewart shared another insight in their comments – the degree doesn’t catapult your career, but it does serve as an indicator for a person’s determination and drive.

And there is no denying that an MBA is a life-changing challenge and major accomplishment.

Now, just wanted to go on the record: Blogging is overrated.

Next Blog

Overrated MBA Degrees

This past Sunday in the comments section, we heard a few perspectives on the value of the MBA – Masters of Business Administration. Personally, MBA degrees are a dime a dozen, and mostly overrated.

Count on your hand five people who have been transformed by their MBA.

Not saying that people don’t benefit from getting their MBA. There’s no question that the enormous effort and expense changes the MBA graduate.

And perhaps there’s a place, a rite of passage so to speak, to follow an undergraduate degree with a Master’s degree when we are in our early 20’s and at the very front end of our career..

But what I’m saying right here, right now, that in later life, people have to admit a certain truth.

The truth is, you must ask some seriously honest questions:

Why is an MBA critical to me now?
What’s my payoff, my ROI?
Will this catapult my career, and why?
Or will it simply pad my resume?
Is there a smarter way to increase my rank and salary?

Please don’t misunderstand, everyone knows that an MBA graduate has conquered what few others have. All I’m saying is this, does it catapult you?

And if it doesn’t, then why expend the energy, effort, time, and money?

So, back to where we started, at the end of three years, will you have a profitable business?

Now that seems like a great payoff, a huge ROI – like being shot out of a cannon. Or am I missing something?

MBAs should be pass or fail

Ever have so much to say that you don’t know where to start?

Sitting here, fingers on the laptop keyboard, I’m hard pressed to find the right place to begin.

And as someone who has worked professionally for 36 years, been to hell and back (twice), overcome addiction, overcome (an invisible) disability, constantly struggles with health challenges, and generally has the weight of the world on my shoulders, inspiration for today’s post should come easy.

But it’s not.

Maybe Sundays would be better off as a “day of rest”.

If that would prove valuable, I’d like rant about MBA degrees. In searching for an MBA program that would suit my ADD, high achieving, aggressively unfancy, professionally antagonistic, uncommonly insightful, intuitive, and overall impatient personality – this may prove helpful in annoying people enough to change.

MBA degrees should be pass or fail, and require a three year commitment.

At the end of your studies, if you do not have a profitable business, you fail.

However, if your tax return, for your entrepreneurial business, has turned a profit, you pass.

And a few moments ago, it seemed as if today’s post wasn’t going to happen.

It’s good to disagree, and I respect you if you do (and most of you do). It’s also good to measure usefulness. Try taking your MBA degree to the Bank. See how much they’ll give you for it.